5 chatbots you should try this week: Joy, Pokémon Go, and more

Ever since Facebook announced their chatbots platform at their developers conference earlier this year, the number of chatbots in the world has increased dramatically. However, with this increase in chatbots there has also been an increase in … useless chatbots.

So, where are all the chatbots that are worth checking out?

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That’s what I’m here to help you with.

By sifting through the thousands of posts in the Bots Group and Chatbots Magazine I have compiled a list of five of the most interesting chatbots released this week. These may not be chatbots with Terminator or WALL-E levels of intelligence, but they are interesting, innovative, and inspiring to everyone out there who is thinking about the future of chatbots.

1. Fitmeal

Created by Georges Duverger, Fitmeal is a Messenger bot that helps you track what you eat. This can be useful for sticking to a diet, eating fewer calories, and eating healthier in general.

The bot is super simple. All you do is tell it what you recently ate and when the bot should check back in with you for your next update. Fitmeal summarizes your information into a report that you can quickly access at any time.

Simple, straightforward, and healthy.

2. Joy

Created by Danny Freed, Joy is a chatbot whose entire purpose is to help you track and improve your mental health.

Danny came up with the idea for Joy when he realized that there are a lot of existing applications that help us track our steps, spending, and eating habits, but nothing to help us keep our mental health in check.

Joy sends you a message every day prompting you to let it know how you are feeling. It then tracks your mood over time to give you a better idea of your overall mental health.

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3. BuzzFeed’s BuzzBot

BuzzFeed has created a Facebook Messenger bot that will act as a reporter covering the Republican National Convention. Instead of just sending out notifications about stories, like every other news bot, the BuzzBot will allow people to submit tips and opinions to it that will then be turned into stories and redistributed through both BuzzFeed and the BuzzBot.

Very clever.

Instead of collecting information on their website or in a standalone app, BuzzFeed is using its chatbot in an innovative way to act as a lightweight information gatherer. I expect we will see more bots replicate this functionality in the future.

4. PokémonGo Bot

It was only a matter of time before this bot came into existence. Created by Pratik Jain, the unofficial bot acts as an assistant for the millions of Pokémon Go players wandering around outside.

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By chatting with the PokémonGo bot on Facebook, you can send your location to find Pokémon other people have reported near you (which is a pretty awesome use of the location feature in Facebook Messenger!), get info on how to battle certain Pokémon, report Pokémon you have found, and more.

If you are playing Pokémon Go, which at this point is everyone, you should most definitely be making this bot your new best friend.

5. Bearhug

Created by Audrey Lin, the Bearhug bot is a chatbot targeted specifically at females as a way to easily track their periods.

I do not personally have a reason to use this, but I tested it out anyways! I thought it was fantastic. Super simple, to the point, and I can imagine very helpful.

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Not only can it help you track your periods but it can also make recommendations on when you are most fertile.

The Bearhug bot is a great example of a bot that doesn’t annoy you and gets the job done. Well done, Audrey!

Have you found a bot that you think I should write about?

Send me a tweet right now — I would love to check out any bot you think is incredible! Better yet, build a bot and send it to me, post it in the Bots Group, and write about it on Chatbots Magazine.